A Dusty Development
by TheWafflord
Summary: Ty Lee joins the Kyoshi Warriors for her first official mission when she meets a charming earthbender named Haru. What will happen when the two get to know one another?
1. Chapter 1

A group of warriors ran silently through the forest, their painted faces flashed pale in the light of the moon. The leader raised her fist close to her ear, signaling their halt. The leader silently pointed through the trees to the plume of smoke rising above the forest. Using hand signals, the leader sent two of their party onward. The two warriors crept stealthily through the forest underbrush.

After a few moments they returned with news, "It's definitely them, no mere hunters would need a caravan full of weapons." the first warrior whispered.

"They have two sentries awake, one of the west side of the camp and one of the northeastern side. We can take em no problem!" the second cried, before being harshly shushed, "Oh, sorry!" she replied, barely audibly.

The leader nodded, "Alright... Yui, you take a group of four to deal with the sentry on the right. Ty Lee, you take the remaining two and take the one on the left."

"But, what about you Suki?" Ty Lee asked.

"I'll secure the captive," she said smiling.

Ty Lee grinned, drawing her fans, "Sounds good!" Ty Lee signaled two of the other Kyoshi Warriors to follow her and together they dashed through the forest. Through her exquisite mascara she saw the sentry, he stood on an improvised wooden sentry tower. He looked drowsy, but he was big and an earthbender by the look of him, this could be tricky. Ty Lee turned to one of her warriors, "Jia, how's your chi-blocking?"

She looked at her, "Well, better than it was last month, but if you're thinking about asking me to block _that guy's_ chi, I can tell you that's not going to happen."

Ty Lee nodded, "In that case, I'm going to need you both to wait here until I give you the signal." Without another word, Ty Lee crept unseen to the other side of the tower.

"Wait, what's the signal!" Jia called after her.

But Ty Lee was already in position, she just needed the perfect opportunity. The sentry's head dipped in sleepiness. _That will do. _She threw her collapsed fan at the sentry's forehead, he clutched his face as he fell to the ground. Accepting the signal, the two Kyoshi Warriors ran to silence him.

The sentry shook his head. Seeing the warriors close in on him, he tried to shout for help, but as he did so, a gag slipped inside his mouth. One warrior held the gag, the other tried to restrain his arms, but with a stomp of his foot, one warrior sank waist deep into the earth. He threw the other one off and attempted to throw a stone at her, but found he couldn't. He became aware of a subtle numbness in his right arm. Ty Lee sent a punch into his other arm, the strange feeling spread. She executed several similar punches to his chest and he fell over, limp.

Ty Lee suppressed the feeling of pure glee coursing through her having completed her task perfectly. She cleared her throat, "Make sure he stays quiet." she shouted making her way inside the camp, leaving her warriors to gag the sentry and dig themselves out of the soft earth. Peering behind a tent, Ty Lee saw Suki making her way to the center tent. Then watched as Suki faltered and fell, an arrow sticking from her chest.

"SUKI!" Ty Lee shouted, before clapping her hands over her mouth. It didn't matter because the blow of a horn sounded through the camp. Ty Lee ran to Suki as the camp quickly was roused to consciousness. Examining the wound, Ty Lee didn't think any vitals were damaged, but Suki was losing blood quickly.

Suddenly, a large man emerged from the center tent holding a knife to a young girl's throat, "Well, if it id'nt the Kyoshi Warriors!" his men quickly grabbed their weapons and surrounded the two warriors, "Now boys, correct me if I be mistaken, but I thought that after raiding that village we asked not to be followed, all respectful-like." he spoke in a nauseating voice.

His men grunted in the affirmative. A hooded archer emerged from the shadows and stood beside the large man.

"In fact," He pulled the young girl's hair, causing her to scream, "I be fairly certain that we said we lot would kill this helpless little one if there be any foolish enough to follow us! Now Kyoshi Warriors, what are we supposed to do? We lot are all men of our words now ain't we?"

"No, please! Don't hurt her!" Ty Lee shouted.

At that moment, a rock flew from the forest and smashed into the bandit leader's face. His men looked around, confused. Then the little girl was pulled underground and disappeared.

"Kyoshi Warriors, fight!" a voice shouted through the forest. At this signal, the remaining Kyoshi Warriors leaped into the camp and began scuffling with the bandits. A figure appeared from underground beside Ty Lee.

"Bwah! Who are you?" Ty Lee shouted.

"My name's Haru," he said cradling the little girl. The strange figure handed the girl to Ty Lee. "Is your leader alright?" he asked.

"Suki's lost a lot of blood, we need to get her back to the village as fast as possible."

"I can get her there the fastest, but will you all be okay?" Haru asked.

Ty Lee stood and opened her fans, "I think we'll be alright."

Haru rode away from camp on a giant boulder carrying Suki while Ty Lee stayed with the other Kyoshi Warriors. She led the little girl to a stockpile of stolen goods, "Just stay here until I tell you it's safe alright?"

"A-are you going to leave me?" the girl asked.

"No, not at all, I'll be right here making sure you're safe." Ty Lee reassured. The moment she turned around, she saw a bandit carrying a long spear running towards her. Deflecting the tip of the spear with her steel fan she grabbed the shaft and using the bandit's momentum, threw the bandit over a row of tents.

Three more bandits advanced on her, but another of the Kyoshi Warriors leaped to her aid.

Ty Lee caught one of the bandits' sword blades between her fans and with a quick twist threw the blade out of his hands. She then sent him flying into another of the bandits with a well-placed kick.

The other warrior judo-threw the bandit with the power of his strike.

Ty Lee glanced around the camp, and all the few bandits who weren't disarmed began throwing down their weapons. The hooded archer wept as he held his bow, now snapped in half, as one would a lover.

Ty Lee's knees faltered as she looked around at her first victory with the Kyoshi Warriors. A smile broke out onto her face as she placed her hand on the little girl's shoulder, "Now to get you home."


	2. Chapter 2

The return of the Kyoshi Warriors sent the village into a state of unbridled celebration. The child's family was elated to have their little girl back. In addition, after locking up the bandits to ensure that they would not be causing any further harm, the village was transformed into a festival overnight. The Kyoshi Warriors, though they felt it was time to journey on, couldn't set out with their leader injured. Thus, Ty Lee and the other Kyoshi Warrior were forced to stay and enjoy the festival after all.

Ty Lee walked down the hall of the local inn. She came to the door where Suki was housed and knocked twice.

"Come in." the response murmured.

Ty Lee opened the door and stepped inside, she saw her fearless leader reading a large tome while lying in bed, "Feeling any better?" she asked.

"Not really." Suki replied honestly, adjusting the bandages around her chest, "Evidently an arrow to the chest isn't something one just bounces back from."

"Go figure." Ty Lee commented, trying to lighten the mood.

"But hey, you handled yourself fairly well back there," Suki said shutting the book.

"R-really?!" Ty Lee leaped up in wonder.

"Really. I've seen my fair share of bandits and the ones we faced were not to be taken lightly. And in the end, we accomplished our goal, with no small thanks to you."

Ty Lee's eyes lit up, "Wow thank you so much Suki! That really… means… a lot…" Ty Lee frowned, "D-do you hear something?"

Suki nodded, a sound was definitely coming from the hall, it sounded like doors opening and slamming and also some shouting.

The door next to theirs burst open, the shouting continued. Then their door burst open, "Suki!" A water tribe warrior shouted into the room, "SUKI!" he rushed to the bedside, "Oh my gosh, are you okay?!" He shouted, completely hysterical.

"Sokka, I'll be fine."

Sokka sniffed, tears rolling down his face, "Oh yeah? Well, you're lucky. When Hawkey came with your letter saying that you might not be okay, I said, 'Suki had better be okay or she'll be sorry!' " Sokka sobbed, throwing his arms around her.

"Agh! Aaaah! Sokka! No! Bad!" Suki cried out in pain.

"Oh, sorry."

"It's alright, it'll take more than that to take me from you." Suki said touching Sokka's face.

"I'm just really glad you're safe." he took her hand and pressed it to his lips, "If you weren't, I don't know what I'd do."

Ty Lee quietly excused herself, stepping out of the room. She made her way back to her room, where she saw the outfit she had laid out for the afternoon. Now that she knew her leader was safe, she didn't see anything wrong with going out and enjoying the festival a little. She changed quickly and exited the inn.

As soon as she walked outside, she felt the energy of the festival. She glanced around at the children running through the streets with sparking rods and noise makers. There were musicians across the street playing an old Earth Kingdom folk song Ty Lee recognized.

Then her stomach growled, "Hmm, where can a girl get some flamin' fire flakes around here?" she thought. But as she rounded the next corner all thoughts of food left her mind.

A group of performers enacted their performances in the square. Ty Lee counted four acrobats, a tall man, a tigerdillo trainer and a fire spitter. _Wow, that takes me back. Sometimes I do miss the circus life, but now I'm fighting for something bigger than just the thrill._ She thought.

A man on the opposite side of the square caught her eye, "The earthbender!" she said. She tried to make her way through the crowd to reach him, but the crowd was thick with people. Her heart sank when she saw him turn and walk down the street. She took one look at the trapeze and high wire and smiled.

She fought through the first two rows of people ringed around the performance. Scattered gasps could be heard throughout the audience, but the performers by and large just ignored her.

_A mark of the experienced performer: Knowing that the show must go on._ Ty Lee thought as she leaped up and grabbed the wrists of the acrobat hanging upside down from the trapeze. She released her grip, launching herself up to the high wire. She caught it easily with both hands, flung her feet onto the wire and started across.

She was entirely undaunted by the performer who was crossing the wire in the opposite direction and simply leaped over him, landing on the other side of him on one leg.

Ty Lee looked down at the street below. It had been a while since she had been up so high. From her position, leaping from the highwire to the nearest building and sliding down the shingles was simple. She landed on the street to the sound of applause.

She waited a moment for her head to cease spinning. Once it did, she realized she was standing right in front of the earthbender, whose mouth now hung open.

"Hi, it's Haru right?" she said cheerfully.


End file.
